The Hastings Center is the oldest independent, nonpartisan, interdisciplinary research institute of its kind in the world. The author’s approach regarding our responsibility in a pandemic is frequently referenced as the “fair Innings” argument. Elders have had more “innings” in…

Scores of Americans are in critical condition from the Covid-19 virus and so is our country. Covid-19 has eviscerated New York City and marches toward other urban areas across the United States. Dire predictions of anywhere from 100,000-240,000 US deaths…

The news media are not the best source for scholarly thinking around the allocation of scarce resources. Hyper-ventilating commentators who trigger hysteria about rationing do not allow for a productive discussion that helps the general public understand how healthcare professionals…

Rather than writing about how we have confronted the issues of medical triage and rationing in our lifetime, I thought it would be meaningful to reprint a 2016 New York Times article that coalesced the various responses from the lay…

Craig Klugman, Ph.D., professor of bioethics and health humanities at DePaul University, recently published the following definition of triage. Triage is a process for determining which patients will receive limited resources in a time of scarcity. The patients who are…

It is mid-March 2020. James is a 29-year-old junior doctor working in a London hospital. Last week, James cared for a man who had become sick after returning from abroad. The man had been treated in isolation and is now…

Though every state in this nation struggles with escalating and unmanageable healthcare costs, only Oregon has established a rationing policy for the care needs of those on Medicaid. Oregon’s overt rationing plan has suffered the bumps and bruises of being…

U.S. healthcare spending is poised to grow at an average of 5.7 percent annually over the next decade, stretching government budgets with an upswing in the economy, an aging population and expanded coverage under the Affordable Care Act. By 2023,…